It has been another busy week of learning in Year 5. Our science lessons have focused on air resistance.  We learnt that air resistance is the result of collisions between the leading surface of an object and air molecules and so it is a form of friction.  We started to think about the effect that surface area has on air resistance and we tested some of our ideas by designing a range of parachutes to see how their different sizes affected the speed at which an object attached to them falls to the ground.  In English, we have been analysing the personality of Ernest Shackleton so that we can better understand what made him such a resilient and courageous leader; this will help us to create authentic diary entries when we come to write as the intrepid Antarctic explorer over the next couple of weeks.  Our geography lessons have enabled us to understand better some of the surprising advantages and more obvious disadvantages of living in close proximity to a volcano.  

It's been another busy week in Year 5! The children have been identifying tectonic plates and why these boundaries are often areas of volcanic activity. We have continued to develop our persuasive language writing skills by analysing what features make a persuasive letter and adding these to our own persuasive letters in character as Shackleton.  In science, the children have started to learn about forces. This week we explored gravity and had the opportunity to use the Newton meters!

Year 5 have been busy this week designing and making their replica Anglo-Saxon brooches.  We learnt in history that the brooches had a practical element to them – they helped to hold your cloak or dress in position – and they also indicated your status and wealth in society.  After some of these artefacts were discovered by archaeologists, it helped us to understand that the Anglo-Saxons were skilled craftsmen and that they must have traded because some of the materials used in the brooches came from elsewhere in the world. 

This week, Year 5 kicked off our work on Black History Month and our thinking about how great it is to be different.  We spent some time talking with our families to work out which parts of the world we were linked to.  It might be a very direct connection in that we were born there or something a little less direct...perhaps a great-grandparent came to the UK from a different country a long time ago.  We are all unique and we are now discussing in our lessons how our diversity makes our classroom, year group, school, city, country and world a more interesting, exciting and special place where everybody feels accepted, welcomed and valued.   The map outside our Year 5 classrooms shows that we have a connection to at least 48 different countries.  What a lot of diversity at Sheen Mount!    

Another busy learning week for the children in Year 5 has involved the start of the drafting process for our description of the Lost Thing; the children were brilliant at generating their vocabulary ideas and coming up with some very effective similes to engage the reader.  In history, we have been discussing the importance of timelines in organising our understanding of significant events and in French we are becoming more confident in expressing which sports and pastimes we enjoy.  Our computing lessons have involved discussions about how we can use the internet safely and through our science lessons we have gained a better understanding of why scientists know the Earth is a sphere and not flat - although we all know it's really an oblate spheroid!  As you can see, our art lessons have focused on developing our sketching skills.   We have learnt about the importance of pencil grip, how to shade and how helpful it is to break down the drawing of an object into more simple shapes like rectangles and triangles.    

The Year 5 teachers have been really impressed by the energy, enthusiasm and focus shown by the children on their return to school after the summer holidays.